London-area business increasingly struggle to retain workers: Survey
Keeping workers has become a bigger worry for London-area employers after many businesses saw an increase in people leaving their jobs in 2021, an area survey shows.
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Hanging on to workers has become a bigger worry for London-area employers after many businesses saw an increase in employees leaving their jobs during last year’s pandemic peak, a new survey suggests.
Sixty-one per cent of businesses say keeping employees is a concern for their organization, up from 53 per cent who answered the same way in 2020, according to the survey by the Elgin Middlesex Oxford Workforce Planning and Development Board.
About 78 per cent of the nearly 400 businesses that participated in the survey said they parted ways with some of their employees, up three per cent from the year prior. Almost two-thirds of companies also said they are having a hard time filling vacancies.
“Those two problems are interrelated,” said Bashir Adeyemo, a data analyst and leader for the survey.
“Retention and separations are not really going well for employers.”
Worry about retaining workers was listed by businesses as their third biggest challenge in a post-pandemic world, behind finding and being able to hire qualified workers.
The COVID-19 pandemic, which led to massive job losses during its first waves, could be playing a big role in the survey’s results, Adeyemo said.
“In 2020, retention was less of a problem . . . because of the uncertainties many employers felt during the pandemic . . . as well as there was less competition for workers,” he said.
As has been the case in the past, workers quitting their jobs represented a third of all reported departures. Finding other opportunities and higher pay were the top reasons employees gave for quitting, according to the survey.
While non-pandemic-related layoffs, including end of contracts or end of seasonal work, were ranked second and third in the list of reasons employers parted ways with workers, COVID-induced temporary and permanent layoffs closely followed, highlighting how the virus continues to take a toll on the economy.
“We know that COVID is playing a huge role,” Adeyemo said.
He noted a separate study conducted by his board between 2020 and 2021 showed nearly 45 per cent of employees let go due to the pandemic weren’t hired back by their employer.
Though the survey didn’t break down specific numbers for sectors, manufacturing, health care and social assistance, as well as educational services were the industries that saw the highest number of employees leaving their jobs, the survey said.
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